1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to managing products and, in particular, to managing products using product designs. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to managing products using product designs and standards information obtained from product standards.
2. Background
Product designs are used in performing different types of operations when managing products. Managing a product may include, for example, designing the product, manufacturing the product, performing maintenance operations for the product, inspecting the product, updating information about the product, testing the product, and/or performing other operations for the product.
A product design is a model that can be displayed as a two-dimensional or three-dimensional drawing on a display device. An operator may use a product design for a product to perform, for example, manufacturing operations to make the product. The product design may also be used in performing maintenance operations, rework operations, assembly operations, and/or other suitable types of operations to manage the product.
Typically, a product design includes references to one or more product standards for the product. A product standard defines a set of technical requirements, procedures, and/or methods documented for common and/or repeated use in the design, development, production, and/or support of a product. References to product standards are typically included in the product design. These references may be referred to as “call-outs” to the product standards.
As one illustrative example, a product design may include a reference to a product standard, such as a material specification, to identify a particular material from which a component is to be manufactured. Details about the material, such as engineering properties, procurement restrictions, and/or other information about the material, are included in the material specification.
A reference to a product standard may be created and placed in a product design by an operator, such as a designer and/or some other suitable person, who creates or works on the product design. For example, when planning manufacturing operations to be performed for a product, an operator, such as an engineer, may refer to the product design to identify the operations to be performed. The operator may see a reference to a product standard in the product design.
At this time, the operator looks for the product standard that is pointed to by the reference in the product design. Looking up the information in the product standard to obtain the most up-to-date information may take more time and/or effort than desired. Further, when looking up the information, the operator may misinterpret the information in the product standards.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a method and apparatus that takes into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as possibly other issues.